Contents

Background

He was born in Shropshire, the eldest son of a French
priest, Odeler of Orleans, who had entered the service of Roger of Montgomery, 1st Earl of
Shrewsbury, and had received from his patron a chapel in that
city. When Orderic was five, his parents sent him to an English
priest, Siward by name, who kept a school in the church of SS Peter
and Paul at Shrewsbury. At the age of eleven he was
entered as a novice in the
Norman monastery of St
Evroul-en-Ouche, which Earl Roger had formerly persecuted but,
in his later years, was loading with gifts. The parents paid thirty
marks for their son's admission; and he expresses the conviction
that they imposed this exile upon him from an earnest desire for
his welfare. Odeler's respect for the monastic profession is
attested by his own retirement, a few years later, into a religious
house which Earl Roger had founded at his persuasion. But the young
Orderic felt for some time, as he tells us, like Joseph in a strange land. He did not know a
word of French when he reached Normandy; his book, though written
many years later, shows that he never lost his English cast of mind
or his attachment to the country of his birth.

Religious
Life

His monastic superiors rechristened him Vitalis (after a member
of the legendary Theban Legion) because they found a
difficulty in pronouncing his baptismal name. But, in the title of
his great chronicle he prefixes the old to the new name and proudly
adds the epithet Angligena.

His cloistered life was uneventful. He became a deacon in 1093, and a priest in 1107. He left his
cloister on several occasions, and speaks of having visited Croyland,
Worcester, Cambrai (1105) and Cluny (1132). But he turned his attention at an
early date to literature, and for many years he appears to have
spent his summers in the scriptorium.

His superiors (at some time between 1099 and 1122) ordered him
to write the history of St Evroul. The work, the
Historia Ecclesiastica (Ecclesiastical History),
grew under his hands until it became a general history of his own
age. St Evroul was a house of wealth and distinction. War-worn
knights chose it as a resting-place of their last years. It was
constantly entertaining visitors from southern Italy, where it had
planted colonies of monks, and from England, where it had extensive
possessions. Thus Orderic, though he witnessed no great events, was
often well-informed about them. In spite of a cumbrous and affected
style, he is a vivid narrator; and his character sketches are
admirable as summaries of current estimates. His narrative is badly
arranged and full of unexpected digressions. But he gives us much
invaluable information for which we should search the more
methodical chroniclers in vain. He throws a flood of light upon the
manners and ideas of his own age; he sometimes comments with
surprising shrewdness upon the broader aspects and tendencies of
history. His narrative breaks off in the middle of 1141, though he
added some finishing touches in 1142. He tells us that he was then
old and infirm. Probably he did not long survive the completion of
his great work.

The
Historia Ecclesiastica

The Historia Ecclesiastica falls into three
sections:

1- Books i and ii, which are historically valueless, give the
history of Christianity from the birth of Christ. After 855 this becomes a
bare catalogue of popes, ending
with the name of Innocent I. These books were added, as an
afterthought, to the original scheme; they were composed in the
years 1136-1141.

2- Books iii through vi form a history of St Evroul, the
original nucleus of the work. Planned before 1122, they were mainly
composed in the years 1123-1131. The fourth and fifth books contain
long digressions on the deeds of William the
Conqueror in Normandy and England. Before 1067 these are of
little value, being chiefly derived from two extant sources: William of Jumieges' Gesta
Normannorum Ducum and William of Poitiers' Gesta
Guillemi. For the years 1067-1071 Orderic follows the last
portion of the Gesta Guillemi, and is therefore of the
first importance. From 1071 he begins to be an independent
authority. But his notices of political events in this part of his
work are far less copious than in the later books.